Adobe Connect 12.12 Release Notes

Adobe Connect enables you to create rich digital training, webinars, and collaboration experiences. For an overview of Adobe Connect, see www.adobe.com/products/adobeconnect.html.

Adobe Connect 12.12 is a minor release introducing new features, improvements to existing features, greater accessibility, and fixes to known issues.

Release dates

Adobe Connect 12.12 will roll out in the following phases:

What's new in Adobe Connect 12.12

Improved closed caption quality

Closed caption generation has been updated to deliver faster and more accurate captions, with a marked improvement in word error rate (WER) and character error rate (CER) scores. The improvement is particularly noticeable for non-English languages.

Quiz: One attempt per session

Participants are now limited to a single quiz attempt per session. Previously, a participant could retake a quiz within the same session by refreshing the browser, rejoining via a new tab, or reconnecting after a network interruption. This change ensures quiz integrity regardless of how a participant re-enters the session.

Simulated Live events improvements

Available only on Adobe Connect Hosted environment

Adobe Connect 12.12 introduces several improvements to the Simulated Live webinar experience, giving hosts greater control over session flow, participant engagement, and recording.

Manual playback start

Hosts can now choose to start the playback manually during the lobby phase, instead of relying solely on the timed auto-start. Previously, hosts could only set a fixed lobby delay of 1 to 5 minutes, which was not always sufficient.

During the live session, the Playback Controls panel in Backstage shows a toggle, Playback begins automatically at [scheduled time]. This toggle is on by default. If the host decides they need more time during the lobby phase, they can turn off the toggle. A confirmation dialog appears before the automatic start is disabled. Once disabled, a Start Playback Now button becomes available, and the playback remains on the Intro layout until the host explicitly clicks this button to begin.

Note: Once a host switches to manual start, they cannot revert to automatic start for that session.

Host camera during live Q&A

Hosts and presenters can now turn on their camera during a paused playback segment, allowing participants to see them during live Q&A. Previously, when a host paused the playback, they could share their microphone audio but the Camera pod could only be added to Backstage, making the camera feed invisible to participants.

To use this capability, hosts must add a Camera pod to the relevant Playback layout during the editing phase, at least two hours before the scheduled event start. During the live session, if the host pauses playback on a layout that includes a Camera pod, the camera icon becomes available in the room top bar. If the active Playback layout does not have a Camera pod, only microphone audio is available when playback is paused. This design preserves the look and feel of a live session for participants.

Automated recording

Hosts can now enable automatic recording for Simulated Live sessions using the Record this simulated live session checkbox in the Playback Controls panel. Previously, hosts had to manually start recording, which was a problem for fully automated sessions where no host may be present at the scheduled start time.

When enabled before the scheduled event start, recording begins automatically at the scheduled start time and captures the full session from the Intro through to the Outro layout.

Closed captions for Simulated Live

Closed captions are now available for Simulated Live webinars. Previously, captions were not supported at all for Simulated Live sessions.

When a pre-recorded video is uploaded to the Playback pod, it is automatically transcribed based on the caption language set in Room Preferences at the time of upload. During playback, captions are generated from the video's audio track. On Intro and Outro layouts, and during any paused playback state, live microphone audio is transcribed as in a standard room.

Note: If the room's caption language is changed after the video has been uploaded, the host must re-upload the video for transcription to occur in the new language. Transcription assumes the audio language matches the caption language selected in preferences. If these do not match, the generated captions may not be accurate.

Video replacement without losing layouts

Hosts can now replace the playback video without losing their split Playback layouts. Previously, replacing the video deleted all split Playback layouts along with any pods and configurations added to them, losing all the setup work done by the host.

Note: If the new video is shorter than the original, timestamps on the split layouts may need to be reviewed and updated to align with the new video.

Updated default Simulated Live template

The default Simulated Live room template has been updated to include more pods across the Intro, Playback, and Outro layouts. Previously, the default template showed only a single pod with an image or video, making it less obvious that other pods could be added for participant engagement. The updated template makes it easier for hosts to discover and use interactive elements such as polls, Q&A, and chat alongside the playback video.

UX Refinements & Other Improvements

1. Survey pod: Hosts are now prompted with a confirmation dialog before closing an active survey. This prevents accidental closures during live sessions where closing a survey immediately ends it for all participants.
2. Poll pod: The character limit for poll questions and answer options has been significantly increased. The previous limit of 1024 characters was insufficient for use cases involving longer answer options, such as detailed educational assessments.
3. Poll pod: Full participant responses are now visible directly in the View Votes window. Previously, long responses were truncated with ellipses, requiring hosts to navigate to the Session Dashboard or reports to view complete answers.
4. Attendees pod: Breakout room titles are now visually distinct from participant names in the Attendees pod. Previously, room titles and names shared the same visual styling, making it harder for hosts to manage rooms quickly during large sessions with multiple breakout rooms.
5. Custom pods: The Update pod button for custom and marketplace pods is now visible to hosts only. Presenters previously had access to this button, which led to instances of accidental pod updates being triggered during live events.

On-premise deployments: What's new in 12.12

The Adobe Connect 12.12 on-premise installer includes all improvements introduced in the 12.11.1 hosted release, since a separate patch was not made available for 12.11.1. For details on those improvements, see Adobe Connect 12.11.1 Release Notes.

In addition, the 12.12 on-premise installer includes the following improvement that is specific to on-premise deployments.

Improved audio and video quality

The 12.12 on-premise installer brings a significant upgrade to real-time audio and video delivery for on-premise customers. Enhanced audio and video delivery improves:

• Audio clarity and stability
• Camera video consistency
• Screen sharing performance
• Resilience under varying network conditions
• Reduced server infrastructure costs

These improvements are available automatically to all rooms that have Enhanced Audio/Video enabled, with no configuration changes required from hosts or administrators.

Other notable changes

• Closed captions now include speaker diarization and have reduced latency between speech and caption display.
• Video Preferences has been deprecated and is no longer available in the in-room Preferences dialog. Camera video will consistently use a 16:9 aspect ratio, with quality automatically adapting based on cell size and the attendee's network conditions.
• Screen share quality will dynamically adjust according to each participant's network bandwidth, ensuring continued visibility even during network degradation rather than the screen going blank.

Connect Central homepage customization

Available only for on-premise deployments

On-premise customers can now customize the Connect Central homepage through Admin settings in Connect Central. These customization options were previously available by editing XSL files in the legacy UI and were lost with the move to the new React-based Central UI.

Administrators can configure the following from Admin > Compliance and Control > Customization:

• The logo displayed in the top-left of Connect Central, and the URL it links to
• Which links appear in the Help menu, and the URLs they point to

System requirements

For the latest system requirements, see the Adobe Connect Technical Specifications page.

Upgrade paths for on-premise deployments

Here are the prerequisites for this release:

• From Adobe Connect 11.x, upgrade to Adobe Connect 12.11 before applying this patch
• From Adobe Connect 12.x, upgrade to Adobe Connect 12.11 before applying this patch